Time after time, Digna Arguello folded her hands in prayer and asked God to put an end to the tempest. But Hurricane Mitch just raged on, tearing at her tiny home in the remote Nicaraguan village of Chinandega, and dumping nearly a metre of rain a day on a broad swath of Central America.

Preston Mannings patience is wearing thin. Six months after the Reform leader launched his bid to unite his party with Conservatives - and anyone else willing to take on the Liberals - he is getting tired of hearing about all the problems he faces in forging such a coalition.

Necessary downsizing or corporate greed? Canadian National Railway Co.s announcement last week of plans to slash 3,000 jobs quickly prompted those diametrically opposed views. CN executives said the cuts were required to make the company more competitive.

George Petty is a plain-speaking guy, not prone to superlatives. So when he told Telus Corp. shareholders last April that he wanted to turn the Alberta telecommunications company into one of the worlds "premier communications" firms, he was not bluffing.

Standing on a street in downtown Budapest, Molly Parker and Ralph Fiennes sip Hungarian champagne from plastic cups. It is late morning. They have just wrapped their final scene together in The Taste of Sunshine, a sprawling period epic being produced in Hungary by Canadas Robert Lantos.

It is an unwritten rule of journalism that big stories often appear when - and where - they are least expected. These days, that adage also applies to the business itself, where newspapers seem to make news as much as report it. Consider last week, which began with the launch of Southam Inc.